Through the eyes of a deacon: lesser clergy, major donors, and institutional property in fifth‐century Rome

Abstract

This is a study of the cults of two holy deacons at Rome: St Stephen and St Laurence. It is argued that the narratives associated with these saints were a medium for the resolution of two key, overlapping areas of tension: status anxiety within the clerical hierarchy, and relations between clergy and wealthy lay patrons. Controlling the ambitions of lesser clergy on the one hand, and on the other commanding the attention of major donors, absorbed a great deal of the energies of Roman priests and their bishop in this period. These issues converged on the figure of the deacon, understood in its early Christian sense as the helper/patron of the bishop. Defining the role of ‘deacons’ through the medium of saint cult was a necessary condition of the institutional development of the Roman church, and of church property.

Review of periodical literature for 2021

“…The socio‐economic structure created by these developments ensured the church was central to the economy of the West by the seventh century: Wood argues that it may have owned up to one‐third of all land. Conrad Leyser analyses the situation in fifth‐century Rome by focusing on the role of deacons in the institutional development of the Roman Church. The cults of two holy deacons, St Stephen and St Laurence, centred on their roles as custodians of church resources.…”